PC Support Anywhere Idea

dmg24

How will you know that the problem is fixed? x

braken2000

They should tell me I would have thought. It is either that, or I can see that the problem is fixed if I remote over.

JDMYOFAN

I'll be honest.. There's a tough market out there to crack, the most business you would get are the ones who can't use a mouse..

Good luck explaining to them how to fix a PC remotley.

I imagine most people wouldn't want you having control of their home PC.. I certainly wouldn't.

mum2one

If you were working on a one to one personal level, then you could charge when your finished, one suggestion would be say you charge £30.00 ph, they pay a minimum of £30.00 up front, via paypal then as you know what the problem is a price can be renogiated, in theory you would need to have a pric structure, if you did no fix, you are relying on the honesty of that person, Im not saying anybody would rip you off, but in this day and age, you neva know.
x

dmg24

It is a great idea, but I have to agree with nj106.

* Few people will want you having remote access to their PC.

* What happens when they deny that the fault is fixed?

* What happens if the customer does a Paypal chargeback? Paypal rarely find for the seller/ service provider.

* What happens if the customer says that you have made the problem worse/ damaged their equipment?

Have you done online or telephone support before? It can be incredibly difficult!

braken2000

Remote access requires a small program that the customer is more than welcome to get rid of after the problem is solved. It is completely secure and has prompts on the customers end to "allow" me to jump on their computer. At the end of the day, I have no reason to snoop or damage another persons computer, that is not what I am doing.

If they deny that the fault is not fixed then it is on their conscience. As I said, if i cannot fix it then there is no charge. If people want to be problematic and deny a problem that is fixed then so be it. I could always ask for proof.

I do not know what a paypal chargeback is, if it is dispute then that is obviously going to happen.

If the problem gets worse (which It should not) then I will offer more support until the problem is fixed at no charge. It is extremely difficult to fix minor problems and make the worse.

I work as an ICT Technician at a school for children with social and emotional problems so understand how difficult giving support can be. However, I feel that I am good at it and will succeed.

For a service that helps people who genuinly do not have the patience/knowledge on how to fix a problem their seems to be a fair amount of negative response to it.

Maybe I should not bother?

mum2one

Sorry - me again!

What about offering a 1 to 1 teaching option, or service for parents to make sure that there children dont access sites they shouldnt etc, you could that after school early evening, as maybe use that to break into the market and go there by word of mouth, the bloke who does mine, I recommended hom on to 2 friends, ok its only 2, but 2 more then he had b4. x

braken2000

Yeh, I as going tooffer the teaching thing. But there was not a good response from that. But it is something that I want to look into.

Oh i dont know. I will keep working on the website and see what happens.

dmg24

braken2000 wrote: »

Remote access requires a small program that the customer is more than welcome to get rid of after the problem is solved. It is completely secure and has prompts on the customers end to "allow" me to jump on their computer. At the end of the day, I have no reason to snoop or damage another persons computer, that is not what I am doing.

But how does someone that does not know you, know that you do not want to damage their equipment? The type of people that you will be aiming your service at are likely to be technophobes, they hear lots of scary stories of hackers and viruses.

If they need help in the first place, how are they going to know how to remove the program afterwards?

If they deny that the fault is not fixed then it is on their conscience. As I said, if i cannot fix it then there is no charge. If people want to be problematic and deny a problem that is fixed then so be it. I could always ask for proof.

Yes, it is on their conscience, but that does not provide you with an income. If you asked for proof that the fault was not fixed, they could just turn round and ask you to prove that is was fixed. Had they disallowed your remote access by that point, you would have no proof.

Even if you could get proof that the fault was fixed, what would you do then?

I do not know what a paypal chargeback is, if it is dispute then that is obviously going to happen.

TBH if you do not know the fundamentals of Paypal, you really should not be using it in the course of a business.

If the problem gets worse (which It should not) then I will offer more support until the problem is fixed at no charge. It is extremely difficult to fix minor problems and make the worse.

But how do you prove that you did not cause the fault? You would need some sort of liability insurance, and this is not cheap.

Having worked in online/ telephone IT support, I can promise you that even if you are giving the clearest of instructions, customers can make the problem worse!

I work as an ICT Technician at a school for children with social and emotional problems so understand how difficult giving support can be. However, I feel that I am good at it and will succeed.

It is very different giving face to face assistance, than telephone/ online support. Some people do not even know what a mouse is, how do you explain this when you do not know what equipment they have?

For a service that helps people who genuinly do not have the patience/knowledge on how to fix a problem their seems to be a fair amount of negative response to it.

I don't think anyone is being negative, but people are playing devil's advocate. Your idea is very good in principle, but there are a lot more things to consider than just the provision of the service.

Maybe I should not bother?

Don't give up, however I would recommend you taking specialist advice on your contractual liabilities.

You also need to consider Data Protection issues, and whether any of the customers information will be stored on your machine.

braken2000

If somene does not know what a mouse is then for them to navigate to my service will be extremely difficult.

Having worked in online/ telephone IT support, I can promise you that even if you are giving the clearest of instructions, customers can make the problem worse.

You make it sound like I do not know what I am doing! I have worked in ICT support for years and although some of it is on the fields, actually going to the computer and fixing it, a lot of problems are fixed remotely over our network. Most of the people who work here do not understand what a computer is or what it does. Yet I somehow manage to help them and have never had a problem yet.

As for Data Protection, this is simple. No data is help apart from name, contact details and service history, no other data is held. This can all be done under a standard Data Protection agreement. I dont want to sell the data I am not going to keep anyway. As for proof. I think mum2one addressed that issue and I am looking into it.

There is a negative tone in the response I hasten to say. I am trying to do good here and instead get shunned. Not sure why really?